Yes, that Forbidden Planet show was in Perspecta Stereo, and that’s why I included the MGM Symphony, cartoon, and Perspecta demo reel in the program. We had over 700 people for that presentation! The integrator was working pretty well, although we were having some problems with the center channel. But, it did give an idea of how effective the process could be on a 50 foot screen. Most people though it was true 3 channel stereo!
Vincent, I’m sorry too that my association did not continue with the Jersey. But, they have there own way of presenting film now, and I’m afraid it doesn’t jive with the type of presentation which I like to do.
As far as the current situation, I have no idea what ugly politics are involved with the future of this theater. It’s a true shame.
Vito, the booth was a mess when we started. When Loew’s pulled out of the building in the mid-80’s, they not only stripped all the equipment, they left the booth windows open. Pigeons moved in, and the place was a filthy mess. When we started restoring the booth, Bob and I had no heat OR running water. We had to go next door to CH Martin to clean up. I don’t miss those days at all!
The Corelites were abandoned in the theater (one was laying on stage, and the other was in a storage room near the booth.) They needed a lot of work, and Bob deserves all the credit for getting them functional again. They have new jaws, but that #2 lamp has always been very moody.
That’s a new screen which I was able to secure with a donation by Comcast. I brought in Nick Clooney and American Movie Classics to do a segment when we opened up the center aisle and un-veiled the new screen. It was quite an event!
Yes, Tom Pedler was a very very kind man, and all of us who knew him at the Jersey miss him very much.
Vito, the projection equipment was secured by Bob Eberenz. The projectors are Kineton reel to reel. The sound system is a Sony DCP with vintage Altec tube amps, and the speakers are Altec Voice of the Theater. They can handle 4 channel Dolby stereo, and 3 channel Perspecta. (The Perspecta integrator is a fully restored Fairchild unit from 1954.) The lamphouses are 1955 vintage Ashcraft Super Corelite carbon arcs. Considering their age and current lack of continual use, they work as best can be expected. Last weekend, the #1 lamp was fine but #2 was drifting and had a color temperature imbalance.
Any theater that wants to run archival or vault prints has to run reel to reel. Platters are not acceptable for rare prints.
I understand the Lafayette is running a rare dye-transfer Technicolor print of ZULU this Saturday. It’s a unique opportunity to see a great 35mm archival print on the big screen.
If it looks half as good as the trailer they’ve been running, classic film fans (and collectors) are in for a reel treat!
Orlando, my last film event at the Jersey was the Frankenstein weekend.
It is truly a magnificent theater, and I’m very pleased with the role my early film events played in helping to save it. The science-fiction weekends; classic horror; Abbott and Costello; Sherlock Holmes; Laurel and Hardy; dye-transfer archival Technicolor prints and Perspecta Stereo sound are all contributions to the Jersey of which I’m quite proud. I secured loans of extremely rare 35mm materials, including vintage trailers, shorts, cartoons and production shorts. I even located one-of-a kind kinescopes for some of the comedy events!
When I began, the projection booth was stripped of equipment and was occupied by pigeons. After years of hard work by my friends Bob Eberenz, Steve Levy and myself, the booth is now fully equipped for classic film presentation. Bob and Steve secured donations of all the equipment, and their contributions to this project are immeasurable.
I’ll only say that FOL’s concept of presentation for film began to differ greatly from mine. After ten volunteer years, and bringing in the theaters most successful events, it was time to move on.
I wish them all the best, and hope they can move this project forward and get the theater fully restored and operational. We proved that classic film is a viable entity for the movie palace format, and I hope that it will continue.
Part of the vaudeville stage show at the State with “The Jolson Story” was a new comedy team by the name of Martin and Lewis! Both men developed quite an appreciation for Jolson’s music from hearing it backstage in their dressing rooms between shows.
Joe Franklin has often mentioned his accompanying Jolson on the Loew’s Theaters tour for “Jolson Sings Again.” Does anyone know which theaters Jolie visited on that tour?
I developed the classic film programming concept at the Loew’s Jersey, and had always hoped for the opportunity to bring back many of the great MGM titles. The 75th anniversary would have been the perfect time to show the films mentioned above. I have unique access to rare, archival 35mm dye-transfer Technicolor prints, and they would look great with the Jersey’s carbon arc projection capabilities.
However, I am no longer involved with this project. Hopefully, the new group working on film events will take some of these suggestions under consideration in their future programming.
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
Yes Larry, the Fine Arts (Lincoln) was directly across the street from the Central. We used to go to Bittman’s Camera Shop on Lexington Avenue all the time. The Fine Arts played “adult” fare in the mid to late sixties, and eventually burned down. After that, we used to cut through the empty lot to go to the Central.
Many years ago, the Film Forum operators damaged some rare 35mm materials that I loaned to them, so they’re not very high on my favorites list. The frustrating thing about the 3-D presentation issues was the fact that I knew and explained what was wrong, and it took 4 complaints before they allowed me to fix them.
It’s not difficult to run dual-strip 3-D, but you need to have a certain level of competence in the booth. I’m afraid the Film Forum does not have that ability.
Ruby, the “Watch James Dean materialize” show was one segment of a traveling spook show which played on stage. I used to have a flyer for this program from the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. As I recall, they also gave out free photographs: Elvis for the girls, and Marilyn for the boys. This would date it to sometime in the late 50’s/early 60’s.
I forgot to mention that the management of the Film Forum was initially blaming these projection problems on the print, as well as the way the film was photographed! I knew this wasn’t the case, and their cavailier attitude was really annoying.
A friend recently saw a presentation of a newly restored classic film, and they ran the entire second half with a badly threaded loop on the sound drum. The audio track had an awful warble, but they didn’t stop to correct the problem.
They may have great programming and get all the new restored prints, but their presentation and lack of showmanship is appalling. This is New York City – not Boonton.
Rhett, I recently had two bad experiences with film presentations at the Film Forum. The first time, it took 4(!) trips to the lobby to get the operator to fix the problem. It was a framing registration issue with a 3-D film, and they were causing severe eyestrain on the unsuspecting audience. The manager finally brought me up to the booth to show the union operator how to fix the problem. It turned out that he didn’t know the big knob labelled “Frame” sticking out of the projector head is what you used to adjust a framing problem.
The second recent visit was also ruined by a poor presentation, so I won’t be going back. I won’t miss it, I’ve seen better film presentations in private homes!
There was a weekly film journal called Harrison’s Reports, and it had been published every week since the 1920’s. Their office was located in Rockefeller Center. They folded in the late 1950’s and, in one of their final issues, the publisher wrote an editorial about the current state of the exhibition industry. He commented on the sorry state of the various Times Square movie palaces, noting how run down and poorly maintained they were.
Your firsthand report only verifies his comments, and I’m surprised to learn how early these great theaters started to go downhill.
The Lafayette is a reel gem: a genuine movie theater with an owner looking to preserve and replicate its rich cinematic heritage. This theater, and New Jersey’s Union County Arts Center in Rahway, are the only venues in the New York area properly replicating the classic Movie Palace Experience. Fans of films and theaters should support and treasure these unique showplaces. If you’ve been to either theater, you understand perfectly what I’m saying. If you haven’t, then you don’t know what you’re missing!
Seeing a film in New York’s Film Forum is like watching a badly projected presentation in a concrete bunker. They rarely present a show properly, and they are the most over-rated venue for classic film in the country. It’s a shame that fans of classic cinema in New York City have that poorly designed screening room as their only local venue.
Thank goodness the UCAC and Lafayette Theater are just a short distance away!
In 1954, Atlantic City celebrated Martin and Lewis' 8th anniversary as a comedy team with a weekend of festivities. They included a parade on the boardwalk, performances at the 500 Club (where they first teamed up in 1946) and the world premiere of their new movie “Living It Up” at the Warner. Dean, Jerry and co-star Janet Leigh took part in the event, which included the cutting of a giant cake under the marquee, and a gala stage show.
When they first brought gambling to Atlantic City in 1978, both the facade and lobby of the Warner were still standing. The long lobby was used as a pizza parlor. I talked to the manager and she walked me up several flights of stairs to a storage room. There was a drop ceiling and it was fairly easy to look above it by moving one of the tiles. The entire lobby ceiling was above it, and was absolutely beautiful!
Sadly, the lobby portion was eventually demolished and all that remains today is the facade. It’s been incorporated into the design of a new casino which takes up the entire block.
Yes, that Forbidden Planet show was in Perspecta Stereo, and that’s why I included the MGM Symphony, cartoon, and Perspecta demo reel in the program. We had over 700 people for that presentation! The integrator was working pretty well, although we were having some problems with the center channel. But, it did give an idea of how effective the process could be on a 50 foot screen. Most people though it was true 3 channel stereo!
Vincent, I’m sorry too that my association did not continue with the Jersey. But, they have there own way of presenting film now, and I’m afraid it doesn’t jive with the type of presentation which I like to do.
As far as the current situation, I have no idea what ugly politics are involved with the future of this theater. It’s a true shame.
Vito, the booth was a mess when we started. When Loew’s pulled out of the building in the mid-80’s, they not only stripped all the equipment, they left the booth windows open. Pigeons moved in, and the place was a filthy mess. When we started restoring the booth, Bob and I had no heat OR running water. We had to go next door to CH Martin to clean up. I don’t miss those days at all!
The Corelites were abandoned in the theater (one was laying on stage, and the other was in a storage room near the booth.) They needed a lot of work, and Bob deserves all the credit for getting them functional again. They have new jaws, but that #2 lamp has always been very moody.
That’s a new screen which I was able to secure with a donation by Comcast. I brought in Nick Clooney and American Movie Classics to do a segment when we opened up the center aisle and un-veiled the new screen. It was quite an event!
Yes, Tom Pedler was a very very kind man, and all of us who knew him at the Jersey miss him very much.
Vito, the projection equipment was secured by Bob Eberenz. The projectors are Kineton reel to reel. The sound system is a Sony DCP with vintage Altec tube amps, and the speakers are Altec Voice of the Theater. They can handle 4 channel Dolby stereo, and 3 channel Perspecta. (The Perspecta integrator is a fully restored Fairchild unit from 1954.) The lamphouses are 1955 vintage Ashcraft Super Corelite carbon arcs. Considering their age and current lack of continual use, they work as best can be expected. Last weekend, the #1 lamp was fine but #2 was drifting and had a color temperature imbalance.
Any theater that wants to run archival or vault prints has to run reel to reel. Platters are not acceptable for rare prints.
I understand the Lafayette is running a rare dye-transfer Technicolor print of ZULU this Saturday. It’s a unique opportunity to see a great 35mm archival print on the big screen.
If it looks half as good as the trailer they’ve been running, classic film fans (and collectors) are in for a reel treat!
Orlando, my last film event at the Jersey was the Frankenstein weekend.
It is truly a magnificent theater, and I’m very pleased with the role my early film events played in helping to save it. The science-fiction weekends; classic horror; Abbott and Costello; Sherlock Holmes; Laurel and Hardy; dye-transfer archival Technicolor prints and Perspecta Stereo sound are all contributions to the Jersey of which I’m quite proud. I secured loans of extremely rare 35mm materials, including vintage trailers, shorts, cartoons and production shorts. I even located one-of-a kind kinescopes for some of the comedy events!
When I began, the projection booth was stripped of equipment and was occupied by pigeons. After years of hard work by my friends Bob Eberenz, Steve Levy and myself, the booth is now fully equipped for classic film presentation. Bob and Steve secured donations of all the equipment, and their contributions to this project are immeasurable.
I’ll only say that FOL’s concept of presentation for film began to differ greatly from mine. After ten volunteer years, and bringing in the theaters most successful events, it was time to move on.
I wish them all the best, and hope they can move this project forward and get the theater fully restored and operational. We proved that classic film is a viable entity for the movie palace format, and I hope that it will continue.
Part of the vaudeville stage show at the State with “The Jolson Story” was a new comedy team by the name of Martin and Lewis! Both men developed quite an appreciation for Jolson’s music from hearing it backstage in their dressing rooms between shows.
Joe Franklin has often mentioned his accompanying Jolson on the Loew’s Theaters tour for “Jolson Sings Again.” Does anyone know which theaters Jolie visited on that tour?
I developed the classic film programming concept at the Loew’s Jersey, and had always hoped for the opportunity to bring back many of the great MGM titles. The 75th anniversary would have been the perfect time to show the films mentioned above. I have unique access to rare, archival 35mm dye-transfer Technicolor prints, and they would look great with the Jersey’s carbon arc projection capabilities.
However, I am no longer involved with this project. Hopefully, the new group working on film events will take some of these suggestions under consideration in their future programming.
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
For more information, visit their website at www.bigscreenclassics.com
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
For more information, visit their website at www.bigscreenclassics.com
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
For more information, visit their website at www.bigscreenclassics.com
75 years ago, the Wonder Theaters were built and became prime showcases for all the great MGM product over the next 3 decades. The only Wonder Theater showing film today is Loew’s Jersey but, sadly, they are not playing any MGM product in their 75th anniversary programming.
However, the beautifully restored Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York salutes the Loew’s Wonder Theaters by presenting a newly restored 35mm print of one of MGM’s greatest musicals, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” It will be shown this Saturday, September 25 as part of their weekly Big Screen Classics series. They will also present a vintage MGM short, and will play live music on their magnificent Wurlitzer organ.
For more information, visit their website at www.bigscreenclassics.com
Yes Larry, the Fine Arts (Lincoln) was directly across the street from the Central. We used to go to Bittman’s Camera Shop on Lexington Avenue all the time. The Fine Arts played “adult” fare in the mid to late sixties, and eventually burned down. After that, we used to cut through the empty lot to go to the Central.
The Roxy was (I think) the first great movie palace to be torn down in New York City. Was there any kind of effort to save it at that time?
It’s hard to believe that it fell to the wreckers ball when it wasn’t even 40 years old!
Warren, it’s been a long time, but I’m pretty sure there was an elevator in the lobby.
When I saw it, the Penthouse was in really bad shape. There was extensive water damage, and this was 25 years ago!
Gaudy is an understatement!
It looks like they purchased every color in the book and just went wild.
Many years ago, the Film Forum operators damaged some rare 35mm materials that I loaned to them, so they’re not very high on my favorites list. The frustrating thing about the 3-D presentation issues was the fact that I knew and explained what was wrong, and it took 4 complaints before they allowed me to fix them.
It’s not difficult to run dual-strip 3-D, but you need to have a certain level of competence in the booth. I’m afraid the Film Forum does not have that ability.
Ruby, the “Watch James Dean materialize” show was one segment of a traveling spook show which played on stage. I used to have a flyer for this program from the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. As I recall, they also gave out free photographs: Elvis for the girls, and Marilyn for the boys. This would date it to sometime in the late 50’s/early 60’s.
I forgot to mention that the management of the Film Forum was initially blaming these projection problems on the print, as well as the way the film was photographed! I knew this wasn’t the case, and their cavailier attitude was really annoying.
A friend recently saw a presentation of a newly restored classic film, and they ran the entire second half with a badly threaded loop on the sound drum. The audio track had an awful warble, but they didn’t stop to correct the problem.
They may have great programming and get all the new restored prints, but their presentation and lack of showmanship is appalling. This is New York City – not Boonton.
Rhett, I recently had two bad experiences with film presentations at the Film Forum. The first time, it took 4(!) trips to the lobby to get the operator to fix the problem. It was a framing registration issue with a 3-D film, and they were causing severe eyestrain on the unsuspecting audience. The manager finally brought me up to the booth to show the union operator how to fix the problem. It turned out that he didn’t know the big knob labelled “Frame” sticking out of the projector head is what you used to adjust a framing problem.
The second recent visit was also ruined by a poor presentation, so I won’t be going back. I won’t miss it, I’ve seen better film presentations in private homes!
If you’ve got a spare $12,000.00, you can own a very unique souvenir from this lost palace.
There’s an auction on eBay for an original balcony railing with the Paramount logo – auction # 3839413167. Be warned: it weighs 700 pounds!
There was a weekly film journal called Harrison’s Reports, and it had been published every week since the 1920’s. Their office was located in Rockefeller Center. They folded in the late 1950’s and, in one of their final issues, the publisher wrote an editorial about the current state of the exhibition industry. He commented on the sorry state of the various Times Square movie palaces, noting how run down and poorly maintained they were.
Your firsthand report only verifies his comments, and I’m surprised to learn how early these great theaters started to go downhill.
You may just get your wish. Although I don’t have definite details, I understand a Silent Film weekend is in the works for early next year!
The Lafayette is a reel gem: a genuine movie theater with an owner looking to preserve and replicate its rich cinematic heritage. This theater, and New Jersey’s Union County Arts Center in Rahway, are the only venues in the New York area properly replicating the classic Movie Palace Experience. Fans of films and theaters should support and treasure these unique showplaces. If you’ve been to either theater, you understand perfectly what I’m saying. If you haven’t, then you don’t know what you’re missing!
Seeing a film in New York’s Film Forum is like watching a badly projected presentation in a concrete bunker. They rarely present a show properly, and they are the most over-rated venue for classic film in the country. It’s a shame that fans of classic cinema in New York City have that poorly designed screening room as their only local venue.
Thank goodness the UCAC and Lafayette Theater are just a short distance away!
They have certainly cleaned and brightened it up. When I last saw it, the marquee was still on the front and the facade was dirty and faded.
In 1954, Atlantic City celebrated Martin and Lewis' 8th anniversary as a comedy team with a weekend of festivities. They included a parade on the boardwalk, performances at the 500 Club (where they first teamed up in 1946) and the world premiere of their new movie “Living It Up” at the Warner. Dean, Jerry and co-star Janet Leigh took part in the event, which included the cutting of a giant cake under the marquee, and a gala stage show.
When they first brought gambling to Atlantic City in 1978, both the facade and lobby of the Warner were still standing. The long lobby was used as a pizza parlor. I talked to the manager and she walked me up several flights of stairs to a storage room. There was a drop ceiling and it was fairly easy to look above it by moving one of the tiles. The entire lobby ceiling was above it, and was absolutely beautiful!
Sadly, the lobby portion was eventually demolished and all that remains today is the facade. It’s been incorporated into the design of a new casino which takes up the entire block.